No Pain....No Gain?

We have all heard the popular cliches before..."No Pain, No Gain" and "Pain is Weakness". I have heard coaches, parents and athletes say them to me all the time. Lets take a closer look at what these quotes actually mean.

First of all, let's determine what pain is. According to Webster's dictionary, pain is defined as: suffering or distress of body or mind, also : a sensation marked by discomfort. Does that sound like something that will help you gain?

Now I am not trying to create a generation of athletes that can't workout because they stubbed their finger or because their brother hit them in the hip with a whiffle ball bat. That's not really pain. That is one of the few occasions when its acceptable to utter those popular words, "suck it up". For the purposes of this rant, let's separate pain (being injured, hurt or having something wrong with the body) from being nicked up or a little sore. Let's also agree that pain is not being winded from a conditioning sprint or feeling like your arms will fall off from a set of max rep push ups.

Pain means there is something wrong that needs to be fixed.

Let's just take a look at a common "pain" we see at SOAR from our youth clients on a daily basis - knee pain. Aside from the obvious tears, sprains and strains, kids can experience knee pain from growing, from being weak in the hips or having poor flexibility. The very first thing we do is determine what hurts it and what does not. We live by a very simple principle at SOAR: If it hurts, don't do it.

Once we determine what hurts it, we begin to put a program together to help eliminate the pain. It usually involves hip, hamstring and glute strengthening and flexibility work. The exercises we usually cut out are jumping, high intensity sprinting/agility and squatting to a depth that causes pain. On a weekly basis, we ask the client how the knee feels and add or subtract exercises accordingly. The whole goal is to eliminate the pain, then build from there. The growing body is a quite a puzzle. A good trainer must learn when to its appropriate to move forward, and when its necessary to take a few steps back.

After years of training athletes, I am starting to think that "No Pain, No Gain" is possibly the most senseless thing ever said. Think about it. If you are in pain when you are training, are you gaining? No, you are making the problem worse.

So I am starting a crusade to change some of the most popular cliches of all time. How about, "Pain, No Gain" or "Pain Means There is a Weakness". You probably won't see them on a poster any time soon, but it is definitely food for thought.